29% of Seniors say they won’t enroll in Part D; another 23% are “undecided”

A new KFF tracking poll finds that 45% of seniors say they have enrolled orplan to enroll in a drug plan, 29% say they do not intend to enroll ina drug plan and another 23% say they are uncertain. The majority ofthose who do not plan to enroll say they have another program or planthat helps pay for their prescriptions.

This bodes ill for the financial health of Part D, whose cost estimates were based on the premise that more than 30 million Part D eligibles would enroll in the program.  Current enrollment stands at 14.2 million, most of whom are dual-eligibles automatically enrolled by CMS last fall.